Lengthy article with graphics and many links and references for those wishing to know more about the topic.
Feedback welcome.
Yes, the power company has to pay you if you generate more electricity than you use, but they only pay you at the rate of the cheapest available power, usually hydroelectric, which costs only a few cents per kw hr. Still, you are saving several hundred dollars a month if you come out a net zero in generation.
“utility earnings could decline as much as 41 percent”...in the summer...in the southern states.
This creates an issue when the sun goes down. Utilities will have to increase on-demand generation capacity to make up for the drop-off. Germany is building six coal-fired plants precisely for that reason. They even burn firewood for electric generation because firewood is classified as a renewable.
I have my campground solar powered, but I use batteries because I am not hooked up to the grid, for Solar to ever be meaningful this would have to happen nationwide, that’s a lot of batteries. Otherwise you are still dependent on “The Grid”.
A more feasible option and far superior would be Personal Thorium Reactors for EVERY HOUSEHOLD. Make Americans truly independent again and SCRAP the Grid.
Very good article on the problems with solar power in Germany:
As I read those small stats I am reminded of how many people a century ago drove cars.
A friend of mine here in KY specializes in solar installations. Actually, he’s my guitar player in my band. His family lived off their own garden and livestock, even butchering their own pigs, selling their raw milk (the only way it’s technically legal) and making their own Sourgum.
They’ve eaten all the livestock and even the chickens are gone. He went from doing the odd solar job every six months to a year to being so swamped he’s turning down work and raising his rates.
There is a tide finally turning. I think Solar has hit its “Model T” moment.
BFL
We don’t have “root top” solar, but we do have “on the ground” solar. I would say that 20% of the houses in our neighborhood have solar. On sunny days, 90% of the days, we give back 3-5 KWH of power each day. This means that the electric coop doesn’t have to buy as much peak power because we supply a lot of the power for our non-solar neighbors. The cost of transmission from my house to the folks across the street is negligible, so it makes sense that the folks across the street should, essentially, pay me directly for that power.
What local generation does is prevent the big power companies from running roughshod over the consumers who now have a dog in this fight.
Truth in posting:
Vox Media is from Ezra Klein, founder of the Journolist and member of the leftist Juicebox Mafia.
This is at least partly similar to the problem the “phone company” has.
More and more people, myself included, don’t have a landline anymore. Yet the cost to maintain the infrastructure for those still on the system doesn’t drop much at all when another person disconnects and drops revenue for the company.
At some point, it will become uneconomical to continue to maintain the landline infrastructure, at which point it will fall apart or will have to be subsidized.
In the solar power case, the utilities must still maintain sufficient reserve power generation capactity to handle the highest possible load, but their revenues to pay for that capacity drop everytime somebody goes solar. That means their cost to generate the power they do sell goes up per kwh.
1st thougth: With a 30% tax credit and the utility forced to buy from me at retail rates I could make the numbers work but that is only if I never sell and the tax assessors don’t ever find out about the “improvement” to my property. Without subsidy I would need solar installation to be in the $1.75/watt range and the state would need to make it illegal to raise property taxes on the value of the solar system before it becomes economically worth while.
Second thought: When feeding into the grid the best that can be said for residental solar is that it reduces the utility power generation needed during a portion of the system’s peak load. This may save a little natural gas or coal but the real costs, generation and distribution capacity, remain the same. This is a big loser for utilities forced to pay retail for solar becuase the power they would have otherwise generated themselves is much cheaper. Essentially laws that force the utility to buy at retail are simply subsidizing people who have installed solar by forcing the utility to raise everyone else’s rates.
If solar was such a great solution, why do most installations only get done with some government grant? My town as installed “at no cost to the taxpayer” solar panels on several municipal buildings. When questioned, the select critter refused to answer where the money came from.
I recently started selling solar in AZ. It makes sense to design a system that generates the power for the peak periods (noon to 7PM) when the cost of electricity is ~$.30/kWh w/taxes and fees. For my house my last bill was $128 vs $278 last month and $312 last year. Of course your mileage may differ, but my payback period is about 5 years when you include the 30% fed tax credit and $1000 AZ credit. Solar in this area helps sell itself.
It’s just a matter of time till utilities place an “upcharge” on power bills where rooftop solar is installed.
We are planning to install a solar system at our mountain house. We are putting all appliances on gas and a gas on demand water heater. That only leaves a small freezer, well pump, lights etc for the solar system to run. In GA it will work like a charm.
They may be buying less, but what are the magnitudes?
Is it the same as going from all 100 watt bulbs to 60 watt bulbs? From moving the thermostat from 70 degrees to 72 degrees? Turning off lights in unused rooms?
The utilities still have to connect these homes to the grid, too.
-PJ
Scam is growing so fast
Thanks for posting. Lots of interesting info.
Eliminate the subsidies and there won’t be any more solar BS!!